Posted: August 20, 2008

Sri Lanka sets up nanotechnology park

(Nanowerk News) The first nanotechnology park in Sri Lanka is expected to commence operations from November with an investment of US$10 million which is backed by the Science and Technology Ministry and SLINTec and MAS Holdings Chairman Mahesh Amalean.
The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka signed the agreement with Nanco to develop and manage the country’s first Nanotechnology Park.Nanotechnology is a rapidly growing field of applied science where matter is controlled at an atomic or molecular scale. Examples of Nanotechnology include the manufacture of polymers based on molecular structure and the design of computer chip layouts based on surface science. Nanotechnology will produce benefits in two ways by making existing products and processes more cost effective, durable and efficient and by creating entirely new products.
Dhammika Perera, Chairman / Director General signed the Agreement on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the investor with the BOI Certificate of Registration.
The Nanotechnology Park, located at Homagama is an investment of US$10 million and will generate approximately 1,500 careers. A. N. R. Amarathunga (Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology) and Mahesh Amalean (Chairman, SLINTec and Chairman, MAS Holdings) signed the agreement on behalf of the company. Professor Sirimali Fernando, Chairperson of the National Science Foundation and Professor Ravi Silva (Director of Advanced Technology Institute of the University of Surrey) were also present at the occasion.
Professor Ravi Silva said “The project will infuse Nanotechnology into the Sri Lankan industrial sector and make Sri Lankan products world leading and competitive. Nanotechnology can be used to enhance most of the industrial products such as rubber products, apparels and energy.”
He explained that the Nanotechnology centre will develop new products and create intellectual products that can be exploited while the Park will house the manufacturing plants for local and foreign inward investors.
Source: The Daily Mirror